Google

When Google unveiled the Pixel and Pixel XL late last year, the company announced that the phone would, of course, be available in the typical black and silver colors. What surprised people was a bright blue variant that Google deemed “Really Blue.”

With the next generation of Pixel smartphones supposed to be announced in the coming months, what color do you really hope Google decides to ship the handsets in?

Expand
Expanding
Close

Most of a key Project Loon patent has been cancelled by the US Patent and Trademark Office after another company succeeded in convincing the agency that it came up with the idea first.

Project Loon uses free-floating balloons to provide Internet access to remote areas, beaming down Wi-Fi from overhead. The patent which has been cancelled relates to how Alphabet steers the balloons …

Expand
Expanding
Close

The UK’s privacy body, the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), has ruled that a research partnership arrangement between Google DeepMind and the National Health Service (NHS) was illegal …

Expand
Expanding
Close

Google has published its latest diversity report, saying that it is ‘making progress’ on a more diverse workforce but recognizes that there is ‘much more to do.’ It has announced a new hire to help it do so.

To push our work forward, we’re thrilled that Danielle Brown will be joining Google as our new Vice President of Diversity. She’ll start in July, and comes with the deep conviction that Google provides a platform where she and the team can make a real impact internally and across the tech industry.

Its latest numbers show that the company is still predominantly male and either white or Asian …

Expand
Expanding
Close

The European Commission has levied its highest ever fine in an antitrust case, ruling that Google must pay €2.42B ($2.72B) for favoring its own shopping comparison service in search results. This is far higher than the €1B fine expected.

Further fines – equivalent to 5% of parent company Alphabet’s daily worldwide turnover – will apply unless Google resolves the issue within 90 days …

Expand
Expanding
Close

Over the weekend, a new leak surfaced that reportedly sheds more light on the upcoming Walleye and Taimen devices. The leak hints at both of the devices’ specs, hardware design, and IO. Based off of these leaks, which of the two new upcoming Google smartphones are you most interested in?

Expand
Expanding
Close

Google is refusing to hand over salary data to the government after the Labor Dept accused it of underpaying female employees …

Expand
Expanding
Close

The first step in an ambitious plan by Google to turn downtown San Jose into a “mixed-use, transit-oriented office space” was approved last night. For the company, the campus portion could fit up to 20,000 Googlers, while the surrounding area would be drastically reshaped.

Expand
Expanding
Close

Google has been found guilty of antitrust behavior over the way it promoted its own shopping services over that of competitors, reports the Financial Times. This is one of three separate European investigations into the legality of the company’s trading practices.

The paper says that a formal announcement will be made ‘in the coming weeks,’ and that the search giant will be fined a billion Euros ($1.12B) by the European Commission …

Expand
Expanding
Close

Google today announced an update to its Local Guides program — perhaps the biggest one in a while. Starting today, Local Guides can reach up to level 10, whereas previously the “game” was capped at level 5. That means those who previously maxed out their points have reason to start updating Google Maps data again…

Expand
Expanding
Close

Every smartphone and tablet has an end-of-life date when the manufacturer will stop spending the money and effort to keep it updated. Although some companies don’t actually tell customers when their devices will no longer receive updates, Google guarantees that its Pixel and Nexus devices will get feature updates for at least two years and security updates for three.

Now, Google has updated its Android updates page to clarify how long they will cover both Nexus and Pixel devices with telephone and online support…

Expand
Expanding
Close

Alphabet Class A shares ($GOOGL) hit new record highs today, soaring past the $1,000 per share mark. Alphabet Inc Class A is up 7.80 points on the day, or 0.78%. Alphabet Inc Class C, on the other hand, is straddling the line just below the $1,000 mark, sitting at 983.28 at the time of this writing and up nearly the same amount.

Expand
Expanding
Close

Despite being a rather popular Android smartphone, there aren’t as many great cases available for the Google Pixel as there are for the Galaxy S8 or LG G6. Although late to the game, Mophie has finally released a version of its Juice Pack battery cases for the Pixel XL. The Juice Pack does add a bit of thickness to the handset but it also almost doubles its battery life and adds wireless charging.

But is it worth the $99 pricetag?

Expand
Expanding
Close

Google’s plans for a new London campus have taken a while to come to fruition, but the company has now submitted a formal planning application for the redesigned building. It will be situated directly opposite Kings Cross station, close to the Eurostar terminus.

Initial plans were filed back in 2013, but the company later decided the design lacked ambition. In 2014, Google asked for an all-new design, and later commissioned the team behind its Mountain View campus to carry out the work …

Expand
Expanding
Close

For those that actually use Google+, its flaws aren’t exactly a secret. The site is plagued with spam, and many still haven’t adjusted to the relative sluggishness of its new web interface. And, with the recent refocus on Communities, Collections (and most recently, Topics), the site in general is getting somewhat confusing to anyone but seasoned G+ veterans (of which there aren’t many).

Now, one Google+ Engineering Manager Leo Deegan has come out on Google+ (appropriately) to let us know that Google is aware of the network’s flaws and is working on a variety of improvements.

Expand
Expanding
Close

Over the last couple of years, Google I/O has become less of a spectacle where people are literally skydiving onto the top of the Moscone Center and more of a place for Google to talk directly to developers. Because of this, people have started calling Google dull. Do you think that this year’s Google I/O developer conference was boring?

Expand
Expanding
Close

Nest, an Alphabet-owned company, is known for its high-tech smart home devices — like its thermostat and smoke detector. In particular its descendants-of-Dropcam home WiFi security cameras have been popular for the last couple years, thanks to being extremely user-friendly. Now, Nest is reportedly prepping to release a 4K indoor security camera to add a new option to the top of the lineup…

Expand
Expanding
Close

Google I/O 2017 might have ended last week but if you missed any of it, don’t worry as Google has now posted its yearly highlight video to showcase the best things to happen at this year’s developer conference…

Expand
Expanding
Close